1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to a device which is well suited to manipulate hosiery or other flexible items. Included manipulations are swift-tacking, j-hooking, inversion and rotation.
2. Description of The Prior Art And Objectives Of The Invention
In the hosiery industry, it is common to attach a j-hook to a hosiery stack with a length of plastic commonly referred to as a swif-ttack. Avery-Dennison makes a needle gun and swift-tack magazine device which effectively inserts the swift-tack via the needle into a hosiery stack. These are typically manual activities with an operator pushing a hosiery stack over the needle to insert the swift-tack. This is labor intensive and a fairly high risk activity as the operator may impale himself on the exposed needle while forcing the hosiery stack thereone. This be performed with or without a j-hook, but additional care and time must be used by the operator if a j-hook is being used to make sure that the swift-tack passes through the opening in the shank of the j-hook.
Long felt need within the hosiery industry has been the ability to manipulate the positioning of hosiery within a hosiery stack. For example, it may be desired to place three folded pairs of hosiery, head-to-toe-to-head, in a vertical stack, so that the middle pair is reversed relative to the outer two pairs. This is typically done manually and for appearance reasons. Additionally it may be desired to invert one or more pairs within the stack. Again, typically this is done manually and for appearance reasons.
Furthermore, after a hosiery stack is assembled, in whatever order is desired, it may be additionally desirable to insert an additional swift-tack into the complete stack for stabilization purposes in order to prevent a pair from flopping over while on a retail sales rack.
With the above concerns in mind, it is an objective of the present invention to provide a device which effectively automates a swift-tack and j-hook attachment to a pair of hosiery or other flexible item.
It is a further objective of the present invention to provide a device which can selectively invert a hosiery pair for eventual placement in a hosiery stack.
It is still a further objective of the present invention to provide a device which can selectively rotate a hosiery pair for eventual placement in a hosiery stack.
It is yet a further objective of the present invention to provide a device which includes two automated swift-tack insertion devices to effectuate proper inter-hosiery attachment.
It is another objective to provide a method of manipulating hosiery or other similar flexible items which includes swift-tacking, inversion and rotation.
These and other objectives and advantages will become readily apparent to those skilled in the art upon reference to the following detailed description and accompanying drawing figures.